Mythbusters…whistle blowing style
26 May 2013
Back in my former life I worked for a commercial construction company as a union carpenter and cabinetmaker. This company had a maintenance contract with a major tobacco products company. I don’t remember the year when all the whistle blowing concerning the addictions and consequences of smoking came about but I clearly remember one of their reactions. When you own a 20 plus story building there are a lot of places to hide things. They had a novel approach, we built full height walls parallel to existing ones and concealed voluminous amounts of possibly damning evidence between them. The walls were separated by less than 2 foot of space and when the items were placed and the walls were finished to match existing ones it was completely indistinguishable from the original. The walls had no openings and were never reflected on the building blueprints. It was a very devious plan to create damage control and to effectively deceive people and have a sense of controlling public beliefs and sentiments.
The tobacco company used deceptive practices to form a favorable mindset then and I firmly belief that church hierarchy has used similar tactics to control the Christian population and their beliefs whether knowingly or otherwise. When I came out as a transsexual I felt their wrath but it had a very different outcome than they anticipated. I went back to the Source and carefully and prayerfully re-examined the Word. Not what men said about it but rather what the Author, the Creator of all things, had said and declared. My results were surprisingly liberating to me and threatening to the established beliefs in place. I am a Christian, a follower and imitator of Jesus Christ, and my single devotion and all of my loyalty goes to Him alone and not to any man. My God doesn't live in a worn and tattered book nor has He quit trying to speak NOW words to His children. Radical approach but I believe that is the only path that leads to Life. Well I guess it is time to find myself a very big whistle to blow and stir the pot a little.
Since the issue that originally started this fire within me was concerning the Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit I shall start there.
I was born into a Catholic home and considered myself Catholic growing up. In my later high school years I became a good old fashioned heathen and quickly moved to being agnostic, there were less rules to follow. I actually accepted Christ in 1971 and moved through the Body of Christ starting with the Jesus Movement then into charismatic, covenant, apostolic movements and several older denominational churches over the years. To Catholics the sacrament of Conformation was their answer to the Pentecost experience and the new movements embraced varied depths of acceptance of the gifts as did the Pentecostal and Holiness churches. Not surprisingly the balance of established churches either denied the experience or preached a form of dispensationalism to negate it. Same faith, same Holy Scripture and yet different beliefs. I have been to Benny Hinn meetings, Kathryn Kuhlman Crusades and countless conferences and special meetings touting the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. I am Spirit Filled and believe and move in the various gifts but the Lord showed me early in my walk that the gifts weren’t meant to be foundational for personal ministries or for public show but rather they were tools given to His children to help them walk in victory and to minister for the common good. I got to thinking about Jesus, our living example, and throughout His public life He flowed very seamlessly and naturally in the gifts as each situation dictated. The gifts weren’t and aren’t for parlor tricks or fund raising drives. They are meant to be used to strengthen His Body on the earth. Of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit that Paul’s lists in 1 Corinthians 12 only prophecy is listed within the fivefold ministry of church leadership in the office of the Prophet and even prophecy is presented as one of the gifts our Father freely gives to His children, any of His children. There are no great ministries of Healing, Miracles, Prophecy or Words of Knowledge listed anywhere and yet it seems every ministry claims one of these gifts from God to validate its’ presence.
28 May 2013
Ms. Charlena Marie Andrews-Hayes
